UPDATE: Evansville City Councilman John Friend arrested in Kentucky

Evansville City Councilman John Friend was arrested and booked into jail last weekend in Marshall County, Ky., for operating a watercraft while intoxicated, according to his attorney, Scott Danks.

Friend, D-Fifth Ward, has been charged with operating a watercraft while intoxicated, failure to use boat lights and failure to register a watercraft, all civil infractions. An arrest report was not immediately available from the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Monday.

After Monday evening's City Council meeting, Friend said he regrets what happened.

"I do regret letting myself get in that situation. Obviously, if I had known that were going to happen, I wouldn't have had any drinks. I regret it. I'm not minimizing it whatsoever," he said.

Friend said that he and three of his accounting firm's clients were at Green Turtle Bay near Grand Rivers in Western Kentucky to play golf for the weekend.

After they played golf on Saturday, the group had dinner and went out on Kentucky Lake on Friend's 42-foot cabin cruiser, where they had a few drinks, Friend said.

The plan was to spend the night out on the lake on the boat, but lightning storms came into the area, Friend said.

"Normally, I've been used to things like that, but the clients were not, they were spooked out," he said, adding none of his clients were in a condition or had the knowledge to operate his boat.

So, Friend decided to head back toward the pier, when a conservation officer with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife stopped the boat for failure to have the lights on, he said.

Friend said he freely submitted to a Certified Breath Test. His attorney, Scott Danks said that Friend had a blood-alcohol level of 0.13 percent. The legal threshold for operating a watercraft in Kentucky is 0.08 percent.

According to Kentucky state law, a person convicted of boating while intoxicated may be fined $200 to $250 for their first conviction. Danks said this will be Friend's first conviction.

It is also illegal to drink alcohol in public places, including waterways, in Kentucky.

Friend said that while he regrets the decision, he doesn't feel it was necessary to be booked into jail for the infraction and that it was an "embarrassing" move on the conservation officers part.

Per Kentucky law, a person operating a watercraft is subject to arrest if they refuse a breath test. Friend asserts that he willingly submitted to the test.

"I should not have been handled like that," he said.

He was booked into the Marshall County Jail on Saturday and released Sunday on a $2,000 cash bond.

Danks compared the citation to receiving a ticket for driving without a seat belt.

"John feels bad about it and obviously he's embarrassed about it, but it's not on the same level as operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated, where you're driving down the street going 30 to 60 mph and you have oncoming traffic that's just a few feet from you," Danks said.

Friend said he wants to apologize to his constituents and the city.

"I regret it, I'll get through it and just learn from it, and I won't allow myself to be in that situation again," he said.

Friend has a court date scheduled for July 22, "but he'll simply pay the fine and that matter will be disposed," Danks said.

He said that Friend's driving privileges and driving record are not affected by the infractions.

Friend represents the Fifth Ward, which is primarily on Evansville's North Side. He won election to the city council in 2007.

He is president of Evansville-based Friend & Co., Certified Public Accountants and Consultants, a company he started in 1982.